He'd managed, through some force of will, or perhaps some unacknowledged part of himself that missed his friend, even after everything he'd done, to keep his voice steady when he spoke. He'd sounded almost like any other time the two of them had spoken.

Not like he'd spent so long hating Gaheris for what he'd done, for betraying not only Dylan, but the Andromeda, the Commonwealth, everything Dylan held dear. Was Gaheris standing there, talking to him like they were friends, and underneath, planning to betray him? Was he feeding information to the rebels? Was he already plotting the downfall of the Commonwealth that would see the Known Worlds thrown into chaos and fear?

Dylan couldn't look at the man who'd been his friend and not wonder that, not question everything they'd ever had and been. Not blame him for Hephaistos and everything that had happened afterwards.

Gaheris Rhade was a traitor to the uniform he was wearing.

"You've been brought here." It was a struggle to keep his voice steady enough to respond, to see the Gaheris standing in front of him instead of the one fighting him across the bridge of his own ship in his memories.

He mostly managed it.

"Into the past, in some sort of alternate universe. This ship belongs to the closest thing this world has to the High Guard."